Pick Some

<esp-pick-some>

Component for selecting multiple options from a list of options.

Initial state (HTML)

Set the initially selected items using the selected attribute on the esp-picker-item elements:

Initial state (programmatic / pickerItems)

When populating options via the pickerItems property (common in Lit templates that load data from an API), set selected: true on items that should be pre-selected. The picker automatically detects items with selected: true and renders them as chips:

const allTopics = await fetchTopics();
const mySelectedIds = new Set(user.topicIds);

picker.pickerItems = allTopics.map(t => ({
  text: t.name,
  value: t.id,
  selected: mySelectedIds.has(t.id),
}));

This works with all modes — plain, typeahead (local), and typeahead (remote via fetchItems). The component reads the selected flag from pickerItems during willUpdate() and populates selectedItems automatically. Do not separately assign selectedItems — just set selected: true on the items in pickerItems.

Typeahead (local filtering)

Add the typeahead attribute to let the user type to filter the option list. The input becomes editable and the picker switches to a filter icon on focus:

Typeahead (remote filtering)

Set the fetchItems property to a callback that returns matching items from a server. The picker debounces input (300 ms by default) and shows a loading indicator while the request is in flight. Use the provided AbortSignal to cancel stale requests:

Add new value

Set the addNewValue property to a callback that creates a new picker item from the typed text. When the user types a value that does not match any existing item, the dropdown caret becomes a plus icon. Clicking the plus (or pressing Enter) invokes the callback and adds the returned item as a checked selection:

Attributes

<esp-pick-some> has the following attributes:

values

values has a default value of undefined.

The values of all currently selected items.

typeahead

typeahead has a default value of false.

When true, the picker input becomes a typeahead search field. The user types to filter the option list.

debounce-ms

debounce-ms has a default value of undefined.

Debounce delay in milliseconds for typeahead input. Defaults to 0 for local filtering and 300 for remote fetching.

name

name has a default value of "".

The name used when the picker participates in a <form>.

required

required has a default value of false.

When true, a selection must be made before the form can be submitted.

required-message

required-message has a default value of "".

A custom message to display when the picker is required but no selection has been made. Defaults to "Please select an option." for esp-pick-one and "Please select at least one option." for esp-pick-some when not set.

disabled

disabled has a default value of false.

When true, the picker is disabled and cannot be interacted with.

pickerItems

pickerItems has a default value of [].

The list of picker items to display in the picker. It can either be bound programmatically or computed from the child esp-picker-item elements.

placeholder

placeholder has a default value of "Choose...".

The text that is displayed in the input prompting the user to choose options.

width

width has a default value of "".

An explicit width for the picker trigger. Accepts any valid CSS width value (e.g. "5em", "80px"). When set, the host element is sized to this width while the dropdown menu is allowed to be wider to accommodate longer items.

Methods

<esp-pick-some> has the following methods:

focus

Focus the picker.

validate

Re-run constraint validation and dispatch validity-changed.

checkValidity

Check whether the current state is valid (delegates to ElementInternals).

traverseToClosest

Traverse up the DOM tree to find the closest element that matches the selector. This method is aware of shadow DOM boundaries and will traverse through them to find the element.

Events

<esp-pick-some> emits the following events:

value-changed

value-changed is of type CustomEvent<PickerItem[]>.

Fired when the user adds or removes a selected picker item.

CSS Properties

<esp-pick-some> has the following CSS properties:

--esp-field-background

Background color of the shared field shell. Defaults to var(--esp-color-layer-2).

--esp-field-border-color

Border color of the shared field shell. Defaults to var(--esp-color-border).

--esp-field-border-width

Border width of the shared field shell. Defaults to 1px.

--esp-field-text-color

Text color used inside the shared field shell. Defaults to var(--esp-color-text).

--esp-field-hover-bg

Hover background color of the shared field shell. Derived from --esp-field-background.

--esp-field-focus-bg

Focus background color of the shared field shell. Derived from --esp-field-background.

--esp-field-focus-shadow

Shadow color used for shared field focus treatment. Defaults to var(--esp-color-shadow).

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